A 45-year-old driver with the Ministry of Health, Aguroko Abagna, is asking the Police Command in the Upper East Region to bring two police officers, William Kwakye Twumasi and Michael Apennyow, to book for allegedly subjecting him to severe beatings, resulting in serious injury to his right leg and ribs.

He alleged that his family members went to the district police station to report the case for the two officers to be arrested, but they were asked to come along with him (the victim), knowing that he was injured and could not walk. “The two young men nearly killed me for nothing and they should not go unpunished for their actions. I want it to serve as a deterrent to other police officers and members of the public, who take delight in beating people just because they feel to do so.”

Narrating his ordeal to Daily Guide at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, Mr. Abagna said on 30th June, 2009 around 10:00pm while returning from work to his home at Soe, he was stopped by the police officers near the official residence of the Deputy Regional Police Commander and Deputy Regional Minister. According to him, the police officers asked why he was riding a bicycle at night without light. They also wanted to know why he was using the road in front of the Deputy Minister’s residence at that late hour.

He explained to the officers that he chose that road because it was safer for him considering that it was late in the night; and about his bicycle light, he told them that his front tyre entered a pothole and the light went off. But the police officers insisted that he was a criminal, which he rebutted, resulting in an exchange of words. He said the police did not accept his plea and subjected him to severe beatings. “The young men refused my explanation and decided to beat me up. I realized they were pulling my away from the residence of the two state officers, probably to prevent them from hearing my cry, so I ran to the wall of the Deputy Minister’s house to call for her intervention.

The police men tried to pull me away but as they couldn’t, they started kicking my right leg repeatedly until I could not stand on it anymore.” An x-ray report confirmed that Mr. Abagna has broken bones in the right leg and injuries around the ribs. According to Mr. Abagna, the police officers called a watchman who was also on duty at the Minister’s house to join in the beating and when he refused to do so, they asked him to kneel down.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer has told this paper that the officers denied ever beating the man or breaking his leg. According to them, Mr. Abagna rather struggled with them to resist arrest. The Upper East Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, Dr. Koku Awoonor-Williams, has however condemned the action of the two officers and also asked that those officers should be brought to book. According to him, the two young police officers had accepted to pay the medical bill of the victim, which he said was not enough punishment for the crime they have committed.

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